Whither Humanism in Unitarian Universalism

The Credo Forum will meet in the Cottage Library at 9:30am on Sunday, February 5. We will discuss the future of Humanism within Unitarian Universalism.


Sermons listed previously
Some of the sermons listed for the January forum include a discussion about the future of Humanism in UUism:

Humanism is Alive & Well & Living in Unitarian Universalism! (Just not so much as before!)
http://www.sermons.uuwayland.org/2005/12/humanism-is-alive-well-living-in-unitarian-universalism/
(from December 2005)

Making Sense of Religious Humanism
http://www.uuakron.org/display/files/7-10-11MakingSenseofReligiousHumanism.doc
(from July 2011, top of pg 3)

Theological Options for Unitarian Universalists Part III: Humanism and Beyond
http://www.uuchurch.net/sermons/2011-10-09_theological_options_for_UUs-humanism.pdf
(from October 2011, bottom of pg 3-pg 5)


New articles and sermons
Here are new items that discuss the future of Humanism in UUism:

The New Humanism and the New Theism
http://www.firstparishcambridge.org/node/103
This 2002 sermon provides an interesting perspective on how the cultural changes of the 1960's and 1970's offered challenges to both western theism and humanism.

Our Humanist Legacy
http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/27168.shtml
This article appeared in the Nov/Dec 2003 issue of the UUWorld. It is an excerpt from the book Making the Manifesto: The Birth of Religious Humanism by former UUA President William F. Schulz, the 2000 Humanist of the Year. The article is divided into five segments, the last two of which address our theme.

All of Us Humanists
http://revmelanie.blogspot.com/2011/06/all-of-us-humanists.html
This is a sermon given last June by the minister at the First UU Church of New Orleans. It is her view that humanism is the foundation for Unitartian Universalism but it is evolving and diversifying. "I contend, along with many other UU thinkers and theologians, that nearly ALL current-day Unitarian Universalists are religious humanists of one form or another. It’s just that...humanism is evolving, and there are now many different ways to be a religious humanist. Today, there are atheist humanists, agnostic humanists, Christian humanists, Jewish humanists, Buddhist humanists, pagan humanists, mystical humanists, and so on."

Moving Away from the Humanist-Theist Debate
http://danielharper.org/yauu/2011/10/moving-away-from-the-humanist-theist-debate/
This blog from October contains a presentation to a class co-facilitated by Dan Harper, assistant minister at the UU church in Palo Alto. In this presentation he promotes religious naturalism as an approach which can move UUism past the humanism-theism debate. "The reason I wanted to talk about religious naturalism is because in my experience it is the only theological position within Unitarian Universalism that doesn’t by definition shut out one or more other theological positions."


How others see us
Here are two very different articles that reveal how some outside of Unitarian Universalism view us. These articles don't contribute much to the theme of the future of Humanism in UUism but they were too much fun to pass up.

Strained Bedfellows: Pagans, New Agers, and "Starchy Humanists" in Unitarian Universalism
http://www.americanneopaganism.com/Strained%20Bedfellows.pdf
In this 1995 article from the journal Sociology of Religion the author investigates why Unitarian Universalism has assimilated new religious movements such as neopaganism and new age despite the considerable resistance of its largely humanist membership. In an interesting observation he claims that UUism retains important denominational features but "resembles a cult in the crucial dimensions of belief and belonging." He uses a specific sociological definition for the term "cult".

Cults in Culture: Unitarian Universalist - A Multiple Choice Religion
http://www.christianpost.com/news/cults-in-culture-unitarian-universalist-a-multiple-choice-religion-part-6-63955/
This article from The Christian Post consists primarily of quotes from various Christian commentators discussing the failings of Unitarian Universalism from a Christian perspective. For example, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, notes "it seeks to transform all religious truth-claims into matters of personal choice and opinion. Christianity, stripped of its offensive theology, is reduced to one ‘spirituality’ among others.”